Examining positive strengths The Age Well Study surveyed residents on six areas thought to describe wellness for an individual: emotion- al, intellectual, vocational, physical, social, and spiritual. The resulting picture is bright. “We were trying to take the strengths-based ap-
proach,” says Cate O’Brien, vice president and director of Mather LifeWays Institute on Aging. This approach is the next wave in socialization re-
search and interventions, another researcher in engage- ment and behavior change agrees. “We want to come from a positive psychology ap-
proach—how to help people thrive,” says John Piette, PhD, professor in the Department of Health Behavior Health Education at University of Michigan, and senior research scientist at the Veterans Administration (see “On- line vs. In Person,” p.12). “Research shows that projects based in positive psy-
chology can improve your mood, increase your cognitive functioning, and more,” Piett’s presentation says. “The fi rst wave of interventions to address loneliness
were not very successful,” he says. Many involved get- ting a young person to come to someone’s house, where they usually ended up watching TV. Another type of intervention, inviting older adults out, had obstacles, too, in mobility, for instance. But the biggest obstacle to success is a behavior phe-
nomenon: “Lonely people develop maladaptive thought processes,” Piette says. Thus, these interventions could lead to people becoming negative, or feeling worse about themselves—they can get the impression that they are a burden or an object of pity. It becomes a downward spiral. To pull people out, he says, “you have to think about
how to make the interaction successful and useful.” Usefulness was also a big factor in the Age Well Study:
A “sense of purpose,” or vocational wellness, was one of the six dimensions of wellness addressed—and another shown to be greater among Life Plan Community resi- dents than among the community at large. While the study doesn’t yet look at reasons why, the
report posits that more access to services, opportuni- ties, and simple daily encounters could be the reason for higher vocational and social wellness. In other words, the downward spiral may not get a chance to take hold.
Cognitive health connection? Solidly connecting social engagement to cognitive health is another matter. With so many looking for brain health solutions, from crosswords to computer games, there’s a temptation to declare socialization the next brain boost- er. A paper from the Global Council on Brain Health
MAY/JUNE 2019
ARGENTUM.ORG 7
summarizes the current state: Continued research is needed into the connection between social engagement and cognitive decline. But memory care is already on board to make so-
cialization naturally a greater part of residents’ daily life. “Socialization is excellent brain exercise,” says Dr. Adam Wolff , medical director at the Alumia Institute in Denver, in an email interview. The Alumia Institute is a new memory care campus for daily attendance, using the Kynemics program, a multidomain intervention— physical, cognitive, nutritional, and social. Social interaction is a major brain workout, using
“many cognitive skills, including attention, language, executive functioning, personality, and knowledge of current events, to name a few,” Dr. Wolff says. And “socialization provides pleasure, which also stimulates neuronal functioning.”
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